The United Automobile Workers, known as the UAW, is a labor union with about 400,000 active members. Two weeks ago nearly 50,000 of them organized a strike against General Motors, which led to plants shutting down across the South and the Midwest. The union wants GM to increase wages, reopen plants, maintain health care benefits, and reduce its use of temporary workers.
All IN host Matt Pelsor talks with Indiana Public Broadcastingís Samantha Horton to get the latest on the strike, as it enters its third week. And we talk to a UAW leader in Fort Wayne, and his son who works at the nearby plant, about how the strike is affecting them and whether they see it as part of a bigger movement for worker unions.
We also hear from a sociologist who has written extensively about how the auto industry, and its labor unions, are changing.
Produced by Drew Daudelin.
Guests:
Samantha Horton
Business reporter, Indiana Public Broadcasting
Rich LeTourneau
Shop Chairman of UAW Local 2209
Dylan LeTourneau
Assembler at Fort Wayne GM plant
Joshua Murray
Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University